Element 112 is the heaviest known element. Photograph: Carol and Mike Werner/Alamy

Rejoice, for we have a new chemical element! Well, we have a few atoms for at least a few seconds whenever anyone can make it in a particle collider. Element number 112 (its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus) was discovered by scientists at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany.

Now the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which decides on such important things as names and symbols, has officially recognised the discovery and has sent Sigurd Hofmann, the lead researcher of the team that made number 112, a formal letter asking him to think up a name for his new element.

In time-honoured and thorough fashion, sombre chemists will consider and vet the name before finally bestowing it officially upon element 112 in about six months. Hofmann has to submit a name within weeks.

Which doesn't give the readers of this blog much time to come up with suggestions. We're not entirely sure that whatever we come up with will have any impact on the top German scientists in Darmstadt but, hey, this is the web and anything is possible, including hope.

Some information about element 112: it is the heaviest known element in the periodic table, around 277 times more massive than hydrogen. Scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia were involved in the experiments surround its discovery, a team of 21 in total. There isn't that much of this stuff around: the first atom was created by Hofmann's team in 1996; six years later a research team at the RIKEN Discovery Research Institute in Japan produced another atom.

To make the atoms of element 112, physicists fired zinc ions (atomic number 30) around a 120m particle accelerator at a lead target (atomic number 82), causing the nuclei of the atoms to fuse.

The laboratory at Darmstadt has a good pedigree in making new elements. Since 1981, scientists there have made elements 107 to 112 and named all but the last one so far. Element 107 is called bohrium, element 108 is hassium, element 109 is meitnerium, element is 110 darmstadtium, and element 111 is roentgenium.

So, do help out the Darmstadt team with some ideas for names. This is Darwin's year, so perhaps darwinium? Momentarium?

Oh, and no one will get any points (or kudos) for suggesting dilithium.